The present invention concerns a packaging and handling device for an item that is to remain protected from any direct manual handling, as well as a set including such a device and such an item.
Its use may be found, among others, in the packaging and handling of implantable prostheses such as femur prosthetic heads, this being only a non limitative example.
It is known that such prostheses are packed under sterile conditions and must as much as possible be preserved under such conditions until they are implanted in the patient.
The production of packagings designed to allow the sterilization of a packed item and the preservation of this item in sterile conditions is known and for this purpose e.g. airtight bags or boxes are used.
Nevertheless the problem remains how to keep the packaged item from becoming contaminated when the packaging is being opened and pending its implantation in the patient. This problem is being solved by requiring the handling to be done by means of forceps if the person is not wearing sterile gloves.
But to remove an item from a packaging by means of forceps is not always easily done, especially if the item is in an undetermined position in the packaging, as is the case, for example, when the packaging is a bag or a sachet and if the item cannot be held easily. This inconvenience is all the more evident if the item is to be held by the foreceps in a relatively more precise position, which is the case, for example, with items which have to undergo an assembling process after they are taken out from their packaging and especially with certain types of prostheses: for example, if the considered item is a femur prosthetic head, it is necessary to assemble this head to a fastening pin, first implanted in the patient's femur, this operation being all the more difficult if one does not have a convenient grip on the femur prosthetic head of which the essentially spherical shape precisely constitutes an obstacle to a proper gripping.
It is therefore not rare that the item is directy by the hands of persons not authorized to do so, for example by an assistant not wearing sterile gloves in the case of a prosthesis, thus ruining all the precautions that have been taken previously.
The problem of avoiding a direct manual contact with a packaged item is not only to the case of sterile items, and it is possible to mention the case of items that were submitted to a treatment on their surface, such as a coating that may be damaged by the contact of the hands, as is the case for certain delicate optical or mechanical elements or certain electronic components.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a packaging and handling device overcoming the above-mentioned drawbacks.